Archive for the ‘Behind The Scenes’ Category

Your data is busy. We know that most of you are not just uploading a set amount of data to the Nextpoint platform and letting it sit there month after month. You’re collecting it, reviewing it, adding new data, and moving it around to different databases. The amount of data you start with each month is rarely the same figure you have at the end of the month. For that reason, we have added even more information and ways to track your usage, so that you and your clients will understand exactly what your charges are.

As you can see in the screenshot above, you now have detailed columns breaking out all of your ongoing data storage into useful categories. We’re not changing the way your data is tracked, but making it more transparent and easy to follow. In addition, you can now view all of your data usage by the month. That means you and your clients now have a snapshot of how much data is in their account and how it has been used during any month. You see all of the same numbers, but it is now organized to make it even easier for clients to understand all of the work you have done with their data each month.

The Names Change, the Data Stays the Same

In addition, we have changed the names for each category of data usage. In the past, Cloud Preservation, Discovery Cloud, or Trial Cloud users could look up data in use under a different tab for each application. Now, data is tracked under the tabs Collect, Review, and Prepare. We think these tabs are much more descriptive and accurately describe the actions our users are performing. This way you can easily track your data as it is being used in a particular phase of litigation.

For example in the Collection view below you can see your social media and website collections activity, identifying how much data has been collected. Under the Review tab, you will see the usage of your data under eDiscovery review, and for Prepare, the movement of data being prepped for trial.

We hope these changes make managing litigation even simpler than before. We made most of these changes in direct response to requests and comments from users about their data usage. Look for even more changes in the months to come.

Madison Ruby Conference (and the encompassing Forward Technology Festival) are wonderful showcases for Madison and our tech scene, offering folks from in and out of town alike a chance to learn, network, and just appreciate all that the area has to offer. We’re excited this year to be leveling up from “enthusiastic attendees” to “enthusiastic attendees, that also sponsor“.

So, why sponsor? The desire to put a little back into the community is a big reason. We love Madison and we want to play a part in raising the talent level in the area by helping to grow it organically and by helping attract folks to the area. If the talent pool becomes a bit more diverse as part of the process (a clear goal of Madison Ruby organizers) what a huge bonus that’d be (!).

Of course, it ain’t all philanthropy. We want our name out there in the list of exciting local shops. We’re hiring and we want you to know it! We want you to know that we’re conquering real issues with a lot of meat on the bone; developing solutions that not only tackle issues in an intelligent way, but in a way that our clients actually want to use and benefit from. We’ve been bringing new technologies to a legal space that has been *coughcough* behind. We’ve brought the small-team mentality to the space and have been leading the charge into cloud hosted & delivered solutions since before AWS got out of beta. So, come find us at the event! We’ll have a booth setup and will, of course, also be hanging out around the conference and at the various events.

Grid View is going to be great, as it lets you get an overview of your documents in a more compact, easy to scan package — similar to how you can easily scan for information contained in a spreadsheet. Lining your documents’ data up like this makes it much easier to intuitively sort and browse too, so you can find just the data you need more effectively.

Don’t worry if you’ve grown attached to the older interface either, when Grid View launches you’ll find a link to “Classic View” prominently displayed at the top of any listing of documents in the application. If you do decide to use Classic View, we’ll remember and keep giving you your documents in the older style, no configuration necessary.

Look for Grid View to be released to all Trial Cloud and Discovery Cloud customers in the very near future soon.

Ever wonder how much power has been dedicated to your current import? Along with some recent infrastructure upgrades, we’ve brought that information right up front where you can see it, giving you visibility to the elastic ramp-up of dedicated servers and processors working on your requests. (Elastic ramp-up is a core capability of any legitimate cloud computing solution — Here’s Amazon’s case study of Nextpoint’s implementation.)

Available now via:

in Discovery/Review Cloud: “Imports/Exports”

in Trial (Prep) Cloud: “More” -> “My Downloads” -> “Imports”

Each processing request begins by breaking the work up into smaller “Jobs”. There’s a lot of logic put into just how that breakup occurs, but the gist of it is: bigger requests = more jobs = more dedicated processors to get your work done.

We’re happy to be pushing this information to the front and hope that you like it too!

Following up on the addition of Nick Olejniczak, we’re pleased to announce the addition of Adam Olien to our team in the Nextpoint Lab. Adam is a recent graduate of the University of Wisconsin Madison with a major in Computer Science (and Political Science). Adam also managed to grab several years of experience in a development shop during school. We’re all excited to have him on board.

We’re excited to announce a great new addition to our team in the Nextpoint Lab. Nick Olejniczak has joined the lab this week to help us continue our tradition of litigation technology innovations. We’ve known Nick and his work for quite some time. We’re long time users of his web applications pnt.me and refinr.com and old school fans of the late JellyFish Smack Shopping. Welcome Nick! We’re lucky to have you.